In the past, insecticides and other chemicals were applied by foliar and ground application on top of the soil. This method of application resulted in the expensive insecticides, herbicides and fungicides which exposed farmers to hazardous chemicals, and encouraged over application. Certain compounds became airborne and detrimental to the habitat, including beneficial insects, like bees, that are needed to pollinate corn, soybeans and other agriculturally grown food products.
More recently, over 90% of the corn and 80% of the seeds planted to grow soybeans are being directly treated with a coating of insecticide and fungicide that extend the time that the seeds can be in the ground before insects and fungus keeps them from germinating. One common component of these conventional seed chemical coatings is a neonicotinoid insecticide.
These current seed coating products have reduced the amount of crop protection products that need to be spray applied to a crop. In addition, this has reduced the amount of labor that is needed which has encouraged aggressive growers to farm more land. Seed coating treatments have increased soybean and corn yields, reduced costs and produced more abundant and cheaper food.
There is now a belief by some that the neonicotinoids in the current widely used seed coatings are causing bee colony collapse disorder when the coating chemical compounds form particulates and become airborne during the planting process due to the utilization of forced air to move the seeds through the planting apparatus. This is an important concern since bees are necessary to pollinate many crops. The European Union became so concerned about the detrimental effects of neonicotinoid insecticide particulates becoming airborne that they have enacted a 2 year ban on seed treatment products that contain three pesticides belonging to the neonicotinoids family (clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam).
FIGS. 1 through 4 illustrate a conventional wheeled seed planter apparatus 10. Coated seeds are usually loaded into a bulk seed tank. From the main bulk seed tank the seed is forced by air through a series of flexible tubes before it enters the seed hopper box 12. The seed hopper box 12 also includes a cover 14. A compressed air discharge head 16 is coupled to the hopper box 12. Seed is moved from the bulk seed tank to the seed hopper box 12 via the compressed air discharge head 16. A porous seed container wall or screen 18 is disposed inside of the main hopper 12 to allow the compressed air to move through the bulk seed tank and vibrate the seeds in the seed hopper box 12 forward to the seed tube and discharge chute 24. The compressed air discharge chute 20 portion of the seed hopper 12 allows the forced air to escape. A planter may have multiple laterally-disposed seed hoppers 12 for planting several rows of seeds at one time.
As can be seen in FIGS. 2 through 4, a film of seed coating material (including neonicotinoids, fungicides, etc.) 22 will typically form all over the seed hopper 12 and the air discharge chute 24. Due to the large number of seed hoppers that a given modern planter may have (e.g. 24 or 36 hoppers) a considerable volume of suspected poisonous material is introduced into the surrounding atmosphere due the particulates of seed coating escaping from the seed hopper 12 on every row of the planter.
There is, thus, a need for a product that greatly reduces the air contamination caused by neonicotinoids/other chemical dust vibrating off seeds, becoming airborne and blowing into the environment.